Slash is the Enduro dedicated model from the American bike company Trek.
The bike has being one of the first Enduro Specific platforms on the market in 2010, with 160mm travel front and rear and gravity geometry dedicated to this "new" mtb discipline. The 65 Head Angle is adjustable to 65.5 to less aggressive riders, but I kept it "slack" since I come from a Downhill background and I want to test the bike at his best descending potentials.
Uphill
The bike is very light and made my life easy pedaling uphill even if the 17,5 size for test is too small for me. The Trek Full Floater suspension system is not showing to much bobbing and I actually manage to set my new record on the local tarmac uphill to the trails. Climbing technical terrain is not easy like doing it on a bike with steeper head angle but the possibility to lower the fork and the light weight helps a lot.
The SRAM GX1 11 speed gears are precise and quick, I loved also the choice or 32T ring in front and 10-42 rear cassette.
Downhill
As we all can imagine the Slash does his best downhill. The ABP ( Active Braking Pivot ) is a great design that allows the rear suspension to work also under braking ( not happening in most of suspension design ) and you can feel the difference in tight rocky turns like the one we have here in Greece.
The quality that impressed me the most is the agility of this bike, yes is a size smaller for me, but I was able to jump around and bunny-hop obstacles like few other bikes so long (117.9 wheel base ) can do. The bike is agile and stable at the same time thanks to those great RS suspension even of the roughest Greek terrain.
Again I loved the GX1 that manage to keep my chain in place without any chain device.
What to say? I hardly can see a defect on the Trek Slash 8 2016 from the ride point of view, its really one of the best I tested so far. So... what's the problem?
Well is the Price that Trek decided to apply for this model in Europe: 4500 euro.
This price for a bike with this specs and not carbon fiber is really not competitive and will make it hard to be sold even if so good. All cross country mtb from Trek are cheaper in Europe compare with US, why they didn't do the same with this model ( 3.999$ in US ) ? Can I talk with the Marketing manager ahahah ?
ciao !!!
A.Toninelli
